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Milk, Dairy Prices Could Double If Congress Doesn’t Act

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – As Wade Bingham maintains his dairy farm in Grandview, he’s well aware of the impact lawmakers could have on the price of the hundreds of gallons of milk produced here each day.

Just like milk, the current Farm Bill has an expiration date.. and it was back in September.

So, the price of dairy products could skyrocket if a new Farm Bill isn’t passed by New Year’s Day..

“If you go back to the 1949 Farm Bill, it kind of keeps the cost of milk in line with the cost of production. The cost of production now is much higher, so the milk price would be much higher,” said Bingham.

Other items could go up too, since all farmers would feel the impact.

But because milk isn’t seasonal, and is made year-round, consumers would see milk prices go up first.

For a lot of families, that would really hurt their budgets, especially the ones that drink milk every day.

“I think we would have to cut costs somewhere else, because obviously it’s part of her diet. I mean my son eats a lot of cereal. I mean, what can you do?” said shopper Sheri Untrecht about buying milk for her daughter.

Others say they’d buy less milk.

Back on Wade’s farm, he says there’s a chance the Secretary of Agriculture could try to prevent prices from going up, therefore buying lawmakers more time to work out a new Farm Bill.

However, Wade understands there’s no guarantee prices won’t rise.

“Nobody’s 100 percent sure. We hope it’s resolved, and for the country’s sake, it needs to be resolved.”

If things are not resolved immediately, prices would not skyrocket right away. It might take weeks.